2 physics illinois news • 2007 number 1

T H E D E PA RT M E N T O F P H Y S I C S AT T H E U N I V E R S I T Y O F I L L I N O I S AT U R B A N A - C H A M PA I G N • 2 0 0 7 N U M B E R 1

On July 1,2006,

Dale J. VanHarlingen,Center forAdvancedStudy Professorof Physics andDonald BiggarWillettProfessor of

Engineering, became the 10th head of the Department of Physics at theUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Van Harlingen has spent his entireprofessional career at Illinois, joiningthe Physics faculty in 1981 as anassistant professor. He received hisbachelor’s degree in physics in 1972,and his PhD in physics in 1977, fromThe Ohio State University. After ayear as a NATO postdoctoral fellowin the Cavendish Laboratory at theUniversity of Cambridge, England,working with Professor John Waldram,Van Harlingen held a postdoctoralresearch position at the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley for three years,where he worked on non-equilibriumsuperconductivity and dc SQUIDelectronics with Professor John Clarke.

Focusing on the study ofsuperconductivity and superconductordevice physics, Van Harlingen haspioneered experimental techniques inlow-temperature physics to investigatephase coherence and quantumphenomena in solid-state materials.His ground-breaking experimentalconfirmation of the orbital d-wavepairing state of high-temperaturesuperconductors has led to majorprogress in superconductivity.Current interests are determining thepairing symmetry in unconventionalsuperconductors, fabricating Josephsonpi-junctions for the design of solid-state qubits, developing scanningmagnetic microscopy instruments, andcharacterizing transport in nanoscalesuperconducting structures.

Van Harlingen is a Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society, a memberof the American Academy of Arts andSciences and the National Academy ofSciences, and a recipient of the 1998APS Oliver E. Buckley Prize inCondensed Matter Physics.

Former heads of Physics areSamuel W. Stratton (1890–1896),Albert P. Carman (1896–1929), F. Wheeler Loomis (1929–1957),Frederick Seitz (1957–1963), Gerald M. Almy (1963–1970), Ralph O. Simmons (1970–1986),Ansel C. Anderson (1986–1992),David K. Campbell (1992–2000), andJeremiah D. Sullivan (2000–2006).

Van Harlingennamed 10thhead of Physics

PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS

Exotic relatives discoveredBY RICK KUBETZ

In October, the CDF collaboration—which includes researchers from the

University of Illinois—announced atFermi National Accelerator Laboratorythe discovery of two rare types ofparticles, exotic relatives of the muchmore common proton and neutron.Kevin Pitts, an associate professor ofphysics at Illinois, is one of the co-leaders of the CDF physics groupperforming this measurement.

“This is the first observation ofthe ∑b (“sigma-b) baryon, which is anextremely heavy cousin to the proton,much like an atom of iron is anextremely heavy cousin to an atom ofhydrogen,” Pitts explained. “We havejust added to the mankind’s knowledgeof the ‘periodic table of baryons’.”

Utilizing Fermilab’s Tevatroncollider, currently the world’s mostpowerful particle accelerator, physicistscan recreate the conditions presentin the early formation of the universe,reproducing the exotic matter thatwas abundant in the moments afterthe big bang.

Baryons (derived from the Greekword “barys,” meaning “heavy”) areparticles that contain three quarks, themost fundamental building blocks ofmatter. The CDF collaboration

discovered two types of ∑b particles,each one about six times heavierthan a proton. The new particles areextremely short-lived and decay withina tiny fraction of a second.

To overcome the low odds ofproducing bottom quarks—which inturn transform into the ∑b—scientiststake advantage of the billions ofcollisions produced by the Tevatroneach second.

One of the largest universitygroups in the CDF collaboration isfrom the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign. In addition to

Postdoc Anyes Taffard and graduatestudent Christopher Marino working onthe CDF high-speed digital processingsystem

Logbook: single top production BY KURT REISSELMANN

In 1985, ten years before scientists at Fermilab discoveredthe top quark, Scott Willenbrock was a graduate student at

the University of Texas at Austin. He and Duane Dicus werewondering how likely it would be for a particle collider suchas the Fermilab Tevatron to produce a single heavy quark.

Willenbrock remembers that the eureka moment camewhen he was sitting in a UTexas shuttle bus on his way home.There he realized that a subatomic process called “W-gluonfusion” could lead to a single heavy quark. To outline thecalculation, Willenbrock made this to-do list and includedthe remark, “Could even be t quark!”

“Back then we were thinking about a hypothetical fourth generation of quarks [labeled U,D in the list],” saysWillenbrock, now a professor at the University of Illinois atUrbana-Champaign. “Physicists had no idea how heavy the[third-generation] top was, and we didn’t know whetherthis calculation would be relevant to the top.”

In 1995, the CDF and DZero experiments at Fermilabobserved top quarks for the first time, produced in pairs viathe strong nuclear force. The particle was so heavy thatscientists began to search for single top quark production aswell.In December 2006, about twenty-one years after Dicusand Willenbrock published their predictions [Phys. Rev. D 34,155–161 (1986)—ed.], the DZero collaboration reported thefirst evidence for single top production at the Tevatron.

Story courtesy Symmetry Magazine, Vol. 4, No. 1, January/February 2007. Reprinted with permission. See www.symmetrymag.org/cms/?pid=1000431.

Production of heavy quarks from W-gluon fusion

playing a major role in the analysis ofthe data, Pitts, along with his teamof engineers, postdoctoral researchers,and graduate students, developedimportant components in the CDFdata acquisition system that madethis measurement possible.

“To observe a handful of thesenew particles, we had to sift throughmore than 100 trillion Tevatroncollisions,” said Pitts. “This discoverywould not have been possible wereit not for the high-speed processingsystem developed here in Urbana.”

Another key component of theCDF detector is the “Central OuterTracker” (COT), which is heavilyutilized in event identification andreconstruction. Pitts, along with TonyLiss of Illinois, played major rolesin the construction of the COT.

“The University of Illinois hasbeen a one of the leading groupson the CDF experiment since itsinception,” said Liss, who was theco-leader of the CDF working groupresponsible for the discovery of thetop quark in 1995. “We are proud ofour contributions to this importantwork, and as we continue to takedata at unprecedented rates, we lookforward to many more discoveries inthe coming months and years.”

2 PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2007 NUMBER 1

UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT URBANA-CHAMPAIGN

Over sixmonths have

passed since Ibecame the10th head of theDepartment ofPhysics. In thattime, I haveattended moremeetings, signed

more forms, and answered more emailsthan in the whole of my 25 years as aprofessor of physics here. But I havealso had the unique opportunity to learnabout the ambitions and accomplish-ments of the talented faculty and staffthat make up this great department.This experience has reinforced whatI have long believed, that there is nobetter place to do physics and nowarmer community in which to workthan here in Urbana.

The Department of Physics and theUniversity of Illinois are undergoingsignificant changes—in just the last yearor two we have a new department head,

a new dean in the College ofEngineering, a new provost, a newchancellor, and a new president.We live in a new world—one that israpidly changing and facing new threatsto our economy and our security.All of this will bring new challengesand new opportunities and in turnrequires and inspires new ideas.

The campus has undergone anextensive strategic planning exercise andis focusing emerging programs into thechallenges of information, sustainableenergy, and human health care. At thesame time, initiatives are underway toextend the impact of the University ofIllinois on the international stage, byglobalizing our research portfolio andlaunching a global online campusdesigned to educate a larger and morediverse student population. Suchinitiatives are not without costs andcommitments by the already busyfaculty, so the University issimultaneously undergoing an internalevaluation of its educational programs,research infrastructure, diversity profile,and financial model in order to face thechallenges of the 21st century.

Physics has ambitious plans also.One of my goals as head is to re-establishthe strong infrastructure and support forthe research programs of the departmentthat have always been a hallmark of ourprogram. Initiatives to strengthen thetechnical facilities, nucleate an Institutefor Theoretical Condensed MatterPhysics, and partner with departmentsacross the campus in STEM (science-technology-engineering-mathematics)education are in motion.

Physics has a broad wavefunctionthat extends into a wide range ofinterdisciplinary areas. We arecommitted to maintaining our coredisciplinary strengths while expandingour impact via exploration at theintersections of physics and otherfields across campus, includingengineering, materials sciences, biologicalsciences, environmental sciences,medical sciences, nanoscience, andinformation technology.

This year marks the 50thanniversary of the famous BCS paperon the theory of superconductivityproduced on this campus by JohnBardeen, Leon Cooper, and J. Robert

Message from the Head

BY CYNDI PACELEY

The 1950s’ Cold-War globalstruggle with the Soviet Union

set the stage for launching a newphysics high school curriculum inthe United States, one with centralties to the Department of Physicsat the University of Illinois.

With the outbreak of theKorean War in 1950, concernabout a shortage of scientists grewto encompass its implications fornational security. The 1955publication of an in-depthassessment of Soviet technical powerfocused the American public’s viewof the situation. The 1957 launchof Sputnik added to fears thatAmerican schools lagged dangerouslybehind in science. In response,the federal government providedfunding for the development of

According to a study of U of I physics undergraduate students publishedin Physical Review Special Topics, multiple-choice tests are better than

test questions that require students to work out extended problems with apencil and paper (M. Scott, T. Stelzer, and G. Gladding, “Evaluating multiple-choice exams in large introductory physics courses,” Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Ed.Res. 2, 020102/1–14 [2006]).

The work of Physics Education Research (PER) group members GaryGladding, associate head for undergraduate programs, Timothy Stelzer,research assistant professor, and graduate student Michael Scott was alsoincluded in the American Physical Society’s August 7 EurekAlert.

Their study evaluates the conversion of mid-term and final exams froma free-response to a multiple-choice format as part of the department’sreform of the introductory physics sequence, which started in Fall 1996.

A comparison with longer-format tests showed not only that multiple-choice questions are roughly as good at evaluating students’ relativeperformance, but they also provide additional benefits over calculation-crammed test booklets. Multiple-choice tests ease grading demands inlarge classes, minimize grading ambiguity and inconsistencies betweengraders, and significantly reduce the number of contested grades.

To assess the exams’ reliability, the PER group performed a split-examanalysis to determine the uncertainties in students’ semester exam scoresfor all four introductory physics courses. The analysis involved splitting asemester set of exam questions (~130) into two equivalent groups ofquestions to form “even” and “odd” exams and then evaluating thedifferences in these scores. By looking at cumulative results for 32 differentcourse semesters (this data set includes 128 exams, 4250 questions, and12,281 students), a Gaussian fit to PER data reveals that students’ semesterexam scores vary by only 3.1 percent. For A+ to C– students in thesecourses, this exam uncertainty translates to a letter grade uncertainty ofless than 1/3 of a letter grade.

To assess validity, PER’s intensive study looked at how 33 studentsanswered twenty questions from a final exam they took in the calculus-basedE&M course. Using a Monte Carlo simulation and a log-likelihood fit, the PERresearchers found that the true correlation between the students’ multiple-choice score and their score based on their written work on the samequestions was greater than 0.94 at the 95-percent confidence level.

Changing the teaching of physics FROM 1956 TO 2006

Tradition of physics education innovations continues

Schrieffer in 1957. This is arguablythe single most significant academicachievement ever to come out of theUniversity of Illinois, and we will honorit by holding a major internationalconference in Urbana this October,a great opportunity to celebrate workthat exemplifies the impact that ourdepartment has and can have whenwe approach problems in the “Urbanastyle,” bringing strong theoretical andexperimental expertise to bear on asingle goal.

We are always appreciative of theinterest and support from our Physicsalumni and friends, and I hope that thisnewsletter helps to give you a glimpseof the energy and quality of thisremarkable Department of Physics.Our message of creativity anddiscovery that you help us spreadand the generous contributions youmake to the Department continue todrive and enhance our programs aswe move forward.

Dale J. Van Harlingen

technical and scientific training in theUnited States.

MIT professor Jerrold Zacharias,in some of the earliest meetings of theOffice of Defense Mobilization’s ScienceAdvisory Committee, heard repeatedlyhow “the Russians were getting aheadof us and that we had to do somethingabout education.”

With the backing of his colleagueson the Science Advisory Committeeand officials at the National ScienceFoundation, Zacharias began assemblinga team in July 1956 that would come tobe known as the Physical Science StudyCommittee (PSSC).

In a paper prepared for the PSSC50th anniversary celebration in Summer2006, former Physics faculty memberEdwin L. Goldwasser recalls in “PSSCReminiscences” how Illinois becameinvolved in PSSC.

PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWS • 2007 NUMBER 1 3


PSSC reminiscences

It is always a mixed pleasure for meto attempt to describe events of my

past. On the one hand, I enjoy thenostalgia that accompanies any sucheffort. On the other hand, in theprocess, I invariably realize that myreconstruction of events would havebeen far easier had I done it when Istill had a reliable memory. In anycase, as I sit down to write about myearly days in the PSSC project I’vedecided that my memory of those daysis probably more to the point thanwould be the results of research thatany nonparticipant could undertaketo ferret out what officially recordedfacts might be found.

As my memory has it, sometimeduring the fall of 1956, WheelerLoomis, head of the University ofIllinois Physics Department, wasapproached by Jerrold Zacharias,initiator and chairman of a newlyformed steering committee of aPhysical Sciences Study Committee(PSSC) that he had established atMIT. The membership of that steeringcommittee, replete with universitypresidents, CEOs, and Nobel Prizewinners, is convincing proof that, inthose days, we lived in a world verydifferent from the one in which wefind ourselves today. Leaders ingovernment, industry and academiawere deeply concerned by the rate atwhich the USSR was building itsstrength in science and engineering,and they felt that national securitydemanded that this nation take actionto retain its leadership in those areas.Loomis and Zacharias had workedclosely together at MIT during WorldWar II. That relationship led Zachariasto approach Loomis with a suggestionthat the latter might explore with hisfaculty the possibility of a collaborationbetween Illinois and MIT to pursue theambitious goal that had been embracedby his PSSC Steering Committee—creation of a new high school physicscourse that would represent adramatically different alternative tothen-current high school courses.

Loomis himself had always hada strong commitment to the

improvement of the teaching ofphysics at the university level, and hefelt that the number of studentsenrolled in those courses could besignificantly increased and their qualityenhanced by improving the precedinghigh school courses and teaching. Hereadily agreed to serve as chairman of acooperating Illinois group—if he couldfind sufficient interest in forming one.His own enthusiasm was contagious.

Initially about a half a dozenindividuals expressed an interest inattending a December planningmeeting at MIT to get a better feel forthe direction in which the project wasmoving and to get some idea abouthow an Illinois contingent might fitin. Our interest in pursuing the matterfurther was motivated largely by adeep dissatisfaction with the qualityof high school physics courses of thatday (textbooks in particular). As Iremember it, our bête noir was awidely used textbook featuring apicture of a steam shovel on thefrontispiece—misguidedly suggestingthat was an informativecharacterization of the discipline ofphysics. Another weakness in highschool physics teaching stemmedfrom the fact that it often wasrelegated to the care of any availablestaff member—often, if not usually,to the coach of a football, basketballor baseball team. We all knew that hadto be changed. [Eds. note: Today, fewerthan 80 percent of Illinois high schools

offer physics. Of those who do, 54 percentof the physics classes are taught bysomeone whose certification is in adiscipline other than physics.]

Following the December meeting,a few of us agreed to spend thesummer at MIT to participate infurther discussions about the projectin general, to engage in a more sharplyfocused development of the text, and,finally, to explore, seriously, a numberof different roles that the Illinoisgroup might possibly play.

Everyone agreed that a multi-pronged approach would be requiredto accomplish the necessary majorchanges to bring the teaching ofphysics more closely in touch withthe modern philosophy and hopes ofcurrently active physicists. To realizethat kind of improvement, it wasdecided, among other things, to giveup the standard packaging andordering of the various parts ofstandard physics curricula and to startthe course, for example, with a broadlook at the universe—developing somebasic understanding of the concepts ofspace and time and of the process ofmeasurement.

The multi-pronged approachthat was envisioned included, firstand foremost, a new textbook, andwork on such a book had alreadybeen started at MIT. A set of new,inexpensive classroom demonstrations

Ned Goldwasser as a young Physicsfaculty member

The inaugural award for theAmerican Physical Society’s new

Excellence in Physics Education prizewas presented to Edwin “Ned”Goldwasser at the 2007 Marchmeeting. Goldwasser and co-recipientsJohn H. Dodge, A.P. French, RobertGardner, Robert Hulsizer, John G.King, and Uri Haber-Schaim werehonored for their contributions to thePhysical Science Study Committee, acollaborative effort by MIT and Illinoisin the late 1950s that transformed theway physics was taught in U.S. highschools. The citation reads, “For therevitalization of subject matter throughthe involvement of teachers andresearchers at all levels, the elevationof the instructional role of thelaboratory, the development andutilization of innovative instructionalmedia, and the emphasis on discipline-centered inquiry and the nature ofphysics, PSSC Physics has had a majorand ongoing influence on physicseducation at the national level.”Goldwasser shares his reminiscencesof the PSSC project, and his hope forthe future of physics teaching, in acompanion article.

Goldwasser is a graduate of theHorace Mann School in New YorkCity, received his bachelor’s degree inphysics from Harvard (1940) and hisPhD in physics from the University ofCalifornia, Berkeley (1950), where histhesis research was on cosmic rays. Hethen joined the University of Illinois in

1951 as a research associate, working onthe 22-MeV and 300-MeV betatrons.

In 1959, Goldwasser was asked tochair the Illinois group that wascollaborating with MIT’s PhysicalScience Study Committee to create anew high-school physics curriculum.Illinois’ assignment, which took threeyears, was to create the teacher’s guidefor the new textbook. He also becamean active advocate for bringing afrontline accelerator to the Midwest.In 1967, with an Illinois site chosen,Goldwasser was appointed deputydirector of the new facility, Fermilab.

He returned to the University elevenyears later as provost, a position in whichhe served for eight years. He next wentto Berkeley where, for two years, hejoined the Central Design Group forthe “Supercollider.” Following his“retirement,” Goldwasser was asked tofill temporarily the position of directorof the University of Illinois’ Computer-assisted Education Research Laboratoryand, following that, he was appointed a“Distinguished Scholar” at Caltech towork on the LIGO project.

Goldwasser is a member and fellowof the American Physical Society and the American Association for theAdvancement of Science. He hasreceived Fulbright and Guggenheimfellowships and has served on the AEC’sGeneral Advisory Committee and onthe University of California’s committeesthat oversee its three nationallaboratories.

Goldwasser shares APS Excellence in Physics Education Award

Ned Goldwasser with Physics, the new approach to teaching high-school physicsdeveloped by the Physical Science Study Committee in the 1950s

continued on page 4



and new laboratory experiments werethought necessary to supplement thetext and, for those demonstrations orexperiments that might turn out to betoo difficult or too expensive for theaverage high school, a set of moviesshould be made as stand-ins. Thosemovies were to feature distinguished,currently active physicists as principalprotagonists. Finally, it was agreed thata guide would be necessary to helpteachers implement the new course.Somewhat independently, an effortwas to be made to enlist the help ofa number of distinguished physiciststo contribute to a series of small,paperback books presentingdescriptions of their specialties orintroducing readers to the giants inthe history of physics. (One of myfavorites was a biography of Galileo,authored jointly by Laura Fermi, aone-time physics teacher herself, andGilberto Bernardini, highly respectedfor his research in elementary particlephysics.)

Finally, and very importantly,Zacharias realized that with theadoption of the new course therewould certainly be adisconnect betweenthat course and thethen-standard collegeentrance examinations.He successfullypersuaded thoseresponsible for thedevelopment of thoseexams to create adifferent set of physicsexaminations for students who hadbeen taught physics the PSSC way.

As for the Illinois group, wedecided that major participation incontinuing work on the text would bedifficult at a distance of 1,000 milesfrom the principal authors at MIT.(Remember that there was no Internetand no e-mail in those days.) We feltthat our group, to work effectively,should have a large measure ofautonomy so that our work couldproceed as an almost independententity. We asked for and were assignedthe creation of the Teacher’s Guide.We believed that such a guide wouldbe an important feature to upgradethe performance of experiencedteachers and an absolute necessity tointroduce neophyte teachers to thePSSC course. Homework problemsthat were devised at MIT were sent toIllinois, where solutions were workedout and imbedded in the Teacher’sGuide.

Wheeler Loomis chaired theIllinois group during 1957/58. I hada previous commitment to spend thatyear in Italy on sabbatical leave. WhenI returned to Urbana, I was taken bysurprise when Loomis asked me totake over the chairmanship of thegroup, by then comprising about20 members. Various chapters ofthe text were assigned to individualmembers of the group in accord withtheir expressed preferences, and theyproduced drafts of what they thought

was needed. We strongly believed that,wonderful though the new coursewas in the minds of a group of highlyexperienced, senior physics teachersand researchers, many high schoolphysics teachers would need help tounderstand the why and wherefore ofthe new approach and to learn howbest to put it across. The Teacher’sGuide was our attempt to providethat help. There was a heavy trafficof materials—text book chapters fromMIT to Illinois and Teacher’s Guidechapters from us to them. Thoseexchanges gradually led to a meetingof the minds and to the preparationof two independent books, the PSSCText and the PSSC Teacher’s Guide.

Even before the first edition waspublished, drafts were used at anumber of schools by “masterteachers,” many of whom had beenactively involved in the production ofthe materials and were ready to takethe plunge of teaching the new course.At Illinois, we were fortunate infinding a mathematician, David Page,whose home was in our College ofEducation, but who himself had both

a strong background inphysics and experience inthe creation of a ground-breaking new mathcourse, the “New Math,”that had been developedat Illinois several yearsearlier. He taught theembryonic PSSC physicscourse at our UniversityHigh School. One or

another member of our group attendedeach of his classes. We and he fedexperiences, reactions, comments,and advice to the group at MIT. Ourgroup was also fortunate to have asa colleague Gilbert Finlay, anotherfaculty member of our College ofEducation having a specialty in theteaching of high school physics. Heserved as an adviser to us while alsoserving as a liaison between the PSSCand teachers who were trying out thenew materials. One of the conclusionsthat was reached during the “dry run”of the course was that it would bedesirable to add to the program a set ofteacher institutes, which would providesome further guidance to teachersinterested in using the PSSC materials.

In addition to the production ofthe Teacher’s Guide, several membersof our group made substantialcontributions to other parts of theproject. As I remember it, CharlieSlichter, Jim Smith and, later, LeonCooper (one of PSSC’s bevy of NobelPrize winners) made significantcontributions to rewrites of Parts 1 and3 of the text as well as to one of themovies. (Leon Cooper participated inPSSC meetings at Illinois, but most ofhis contributions to the PSSC projectcame after he left Illinois for BrownUniversity.) David Lazarus and GeoffRavenhall round out the membershipof the original group still to be foundat Illinois.

With the “completion” of the

PSSC reminiscences (continued from page 3)

Teacher’s Guide,” I felt that the workof our group had reached a naturalend. A set of “yellow pages,” to guideteachers through the lab experiments,was added to the Illinois materials bythe group at MIT. Improving, editing,and updating were a continuingprocess, and a new corporation,Educational Services Inc., had beencreated at MIT to take over thosefunctions. I soon became more deeplyengaged in my own research and gaveup any direct communication with thePSSC project. I also brought to aclose the formal involvement of theIllinois group.

Shortly afterwards I wasunexpectedly called back for one final,fascinating adventure. A group offaculty members at Makerere Collegein Uganda had learned of the PSSCprogram and had asked that they begiven the PSSC materials and thetraining necessary to introduce thenew course to schools in Uganda.Zacharias felt that it would not bewise to have PSSC materials used ina setting in which students wereinadequately prepared to be successful.I was asked to go to Uganda, to visita cross section of schools, and to seewhether or not such an experimenthad a good chance of succeeding.That I did, and it is a whole story ofits own. I was joined in Uganda byFrancis Friedman, the principalauthor of the PSSC textbook.

In closing I’d like to express mypersonal views concerning the impactof the PSSC venture on the teachingof physics at the high school level.First and foremost, it is clear to methat the new course spoke and speaksin a language that was and isconsistent with thewidely acceptedphysicist’s view of whatthe essence of physicsreally is. Furthermore,the course has beenenthusiastically receivedby most students andteachers. Thatobservation has beenamply supported bytalks that have beengiven as well as byopinions that havebeen expressed incelebrative articles thathave been published on the weband elsewhere to mark the project’s50th anniversary.

On the other hand, successfulthough the course has been, I believethat it has addressed only one part ofa major problem—and a small partat that. The general public in thiscountry remains abysmally ignorantabout science in general and aboutphysics in particular. Today, decisionsmust be made about a host ofcomplex, technical, and scientificproblems. The general public is illequipped to make rational judgmentsabout the performance of itsgovernment in addressing those issues.I believe that Thomas Jefferson once

commented that democracy wouldwork only if there were an educatedelectorate. We don’t have one today—certainly not in the areas of scientificfact and fiction.

One possible attempt at a solutionto this problem would be to simplyrequire a more vigorous exposure tophysics throughout students’elementary and secondary school years.In addition to that, though, I canimagine the creation of a new course,taught by physics teachers, that wouldattract more attention and interest,and therefore higher enrollments, thando today’s courses. Such a new course,for example, might be structured sothat it indirectly introducedfundamental physics principles bydirectly addressing those technical andscientific issues that face our societytoday. For example, the problem ofproviding for our energy needs whilereducing today’s dependence on fossilfuels could be studied. Such a studycould lead to the development of anunderstanding of energy itself and tothe existence of accessible energy inwind and in solar radiation. It alsocould lead to studies of radiation,absorption and reflection; to studiesof the binding energy of molecules,of the process of burning and thedissociation of molecules, and of theexistence of atoms and nuclei and ofthe phenomena of fusion and fission.Whenever the wonders of a hydrogen-fueled economy might be promoted inthe future, any student who had beenexposed to such a course wouldimmediately ask about the source ofthe hydrogen and the energy requiredto free it. Other current problems thatcould be studied could be the energy

savings of so-called“hybrid” cars and globalwarming, with itsmelting of glaciersand raising of the seas.

The above examplesillustrate the approachof such a new course.In implementing thatapproach, it would beessential to treatsubjects with scrupulousobjectivity, presentingall the “pro’s” and “con’s”in a manner that wouldbe a self-teaching

demonstration of how scientists treatexperimentally established factsand data. At the same time, everyopportunity should be seized toremind students that the beautyof physics lies in its support of theunstinting drive of human beingsto understand more about theirsurroundings—from the sub-microscopically small to theunlimitedly large.

Edwin L. GoldwasserUrbana, IllinoisJanuary 2, 2007

Our interest...was

motivated largely by a

deep dissastisfaction

with the quality of high

school physics courses

of that day.

Every opportunity should

be seized to remind

students that the beauty

of physics lies in its

support of the unstinting

drive of human beings to

understand more about

their surroundings



Physics professors DavidCeperley and Laura

Greene were among72 scientists elected in2006 to membership inthe National Academy ofSciences, considered oneof the highest honors thatcan be accorded a U.S.scientist or engineer. Theywill be formally inductedin April 2007.

In addition to serving on the Physics faculty, Ceperley is also a staffscientist at the National Center for Supercomputing Applications and aresearcher at the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technologyand at the Frederick Seitz Materials Research Laboratory.

An expert in developing methods for microscopic simulations of quantumsystems, Ceperley has created computational techniques that are used byphysicists, chemists, and engineers to predict the behavior of matter. Ceperleywon the Eugene Feenberg Memorial Medal in 1994 and the APS AneesurRahman Prize for Computational Physics in 1998. He is a Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society and a member of the American Academy of Artsand Sciences. Ceperley joined the Department of Physics in 1987.

Greene is a Swanlund Professor of Physics and a researcher at the FrederickSeitz Materials Research Laboratory. Her research interests focus on stronglycorrelated electron systems, primarily the investigation of the mechanisms ofunconventional superconductivity.

A leading experimentalist in the physics of novel materials, Greene hasperformed pioneering experiments that elucidate how the electronic propertiesof low- and high-temperature superconductors interface with other materials.She is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, the American Association forthe Advancement of Science, and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.She won the APS Maria Goeppert-Meyer Award in 1994 and the ErnestOrlando Lawrence Memorial Award for Materials Research in 1999. Greenejoined the Illinois faculty in 1992.

“David Ceperley and Laura Greene each have made fundamentalcontributions to advancing scientific knowledge,” said Chancellor RichardHerman. “Their presence on the faculty of this university is a great sourceof pride, and their work exemplifies the discovery and innovation thathappens at Illinois.”

Two elected to NationalAcademy of Sciences

A lfred W. Hubler received the sixth annual ArnoldNordsieck Award for Teaching Excellence in Physics

for exemplary classroom teaching on April 20, 2006. TheNordsieck Award, named in honor of former Professor ofPhysics Arnold T. Nordsieck and endowed by a gift fromhis family, was established to recognize and rewardoutstanding teaching in the Department of Physics. Inparticular, Hubler was cited for “bringing passion and skillto teaching and for inspiring his students to be greatteachers.”

Legendary for his enthusiastic teaching, Hubler hastaught physics at every level at Illinois—from freshman “discovery” courses fornon-physics majors, to the introductory physics courses for engineers, to upper-levelgraduate courses. Taking examples from systems as different as corn fields andresonant oscillators, he makes the wonder of complex systems and nonlineardynamics come alive for his students. Their teaching evaluations sparkle withsuperlatives: “interesting and enthusiastic lectures,” “highly skilled,” “wants to makesure students learn.” Hubler also strives to involve undergraduates in his researchgroup, and many have published papers on their work—usually as first author.

The director of the Center for Complex Systems Research, Hubler and his groupstudy the phenomena of systems having large throughput, such as turbulence,lightening, and information flow on the Internet. Nonlinear dynamics, neural nets,cellular automata, genetic algorithms, and artificial life models are used to describethese systems. Ultimately, the researchers try to build simple physical systems thatcan self-assemble, self-repair, and adapt to their environments.

Hubler has pioneered developments in nonlinear science research, includingthe control of chaos, the resonant coupling of nonlinear oscillators, and resonantstimulation and novel spectroscopies in nonlinear systems. He was among the first torecognize that seemingly erratic, random motion associated with deterministic chaoscould, in fact, be controlled and that chaotic systems could be more adaptable thansystems undergoing more regular motion.

Hubler received his diplom in 1983 and PhD in 1987, summa cum laude, fromthe Department of Physics, Technical University of Munich. After a postdoctoralfellowship at the University of Stuttgart, he came to the University of Illinois as avisiting assistant professor in 1989 and became an assistant professor in 1990. Laterthat year, he also became the associate director of the Center for Complex SystemsResearch at Illinois, of which he is now the director. Hubler served as a Toshiba ChairProfessor at Keio University, Tokyo, in 1993/94, and he is the executive editor ofComplexity, the premier international journal on complex systems.

Arnold T. Nordsieck, a professor of physics at the University of Illinois from 1947to 1961, was a brilliant theorist with an uncommon affinity for experiment. A specialistin the mathematics of computation, he (with Hicks and Yen) successfully solved thefull nonlinear Boltzmann equations for several nonequilibrium flow problems—apioneering computational effort and a breakthrough in computational fluid dynamicsand rarefied gas dynamics. He also proposed the first electrostatically supportedgyroscope and built the first computer to be used at Lawrence Livermore NationalLaboratory, the Nordsieck Analog Computer. In 1953, he proposed the “CornfieldSystem,” a naval air-defense system that was one of the first applications of digitalcomputer technology to complex decision-making.

Hubler wins 2006 Nordsieck Award

Faculty News

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John Bardeen Faculty Scholar Paul R. Selvin, professor of physics and ofbiophysics, has been named a 2007 University Scholar, one of six selectedcampus-wide this year. The University Scholar program recognizes excellence,while helping to identify and retain the University’s most talented teachers,scholars, and researchers. “The University Scholars Program is the premierrecognition accorded to faculty at the UI by their colleagues,” said RichardHerman, the Urbana chancellor. “In honoring these outstanding members ofthe faculty, selected by their peers, we recognize at the same time the highestvalues of the university.”

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Ceperley named FounderProfessor of Engineering

On November 10, 2006, DavidM. Ceperley was invested as a

Founder Professor of Engineering atthe University of Illinois. Longtimefriends and collaborators Malvin H.Kalos (MS ’49, PhD ’52) of LawrenceLivermore National Laboratory andRichard M. Martin of Illinois, spokeeloquently of Ceperley’s contributionsto condensed matter physics.

Combining incisive physicalinsight with computational virtuosity,Ceperley has profoundly influencedmodern understanding of stronglyinteracting quantum many-particlesystems. He has turned the pathintegral formulation into a precisetool to understand quantitatively theproperties of electrons in solids, ofliquid and solid helium, and othersystems. His computational methodshave defined the state of the art.His electron gas equation-of-statecalculation with Alder—a tour deforce, with some 4000 citations—isone of the most valuable results incomputational science, providingbasic input data for numericalapplications of density functionaltheory to electronic systems.

Ceperley’s groundbreaking workwas recognized by the 1998 AneesurRahmen Prize in ComputationalPhysics, awarded by the American

Faculty News

Physical Society, “for important anddeep methodological contributions tocomputational physics, and for highlysignificant research using thosemethods in multiple areas of physics.”He received the Eugene FeenbergMemorial Medal in 1994 for hisseminal contributions to many-bodyphysics.

A fellow of the American PhysicalSociety and a member of the AmericanAcademy of Arts and Sciences,Ceperley was elected to the NationalAcademy of Sciences in 2006.

The College of Engineeringcreated the four FounderProfessorships in Engineering torecognize distinguished seniormembers of the faculty for theirachievements in teaching, research,and service. The name commemoratesStillman Williams Robinson, the firstfaculty member to teach engineeringat the University of Illinois, and thefirst dean when the College ofEngineering was organized in 1878.Robinson is also the reason thatPhysics is located administrativelyin the College of Engineering atIllinois—in 1870, he introduced andtaught a course in physics, believingthat a knowledge of physics isfundamental to the education ofevery engineer.

Paul R. Selvin, John Bardeen FacultyScholar and professor of physics

and of biophysics, shared the Raymondand Beverly Sackler International Prizein Biophysics in 2006, the first year theprize was awarded. Selvin was selectedfor his pioneering experimental work insingle-molecule biophysics—specificallyhis development of novel tools to revealatomic-scale conformational changes inbiological macromolecules, both in vitroand in vivo.

A major focus of Selvin’s work hasbeen the development of new methodsof resonance energy transfer, includingsingle-molecule detection, ultra-sensitive instrumentation, and newluminescent lanthanide-based reagents.His ground-breaking techniques have

been successfully applied to molecularmotors, voltage-controlled ion-channels, dynamics of the bc1 family ofproteins involved in electron transport,and protein-DNA interactions.

The Sackler Prize in Biophysics wasestablished through the generosity ofRaymond and Beverly Sackler and isadministered by Tel Aviv University.The prize is intended to encouragededication to science, originality, andexcellence by rewarding outstandingscientists of age 45 years or younger.Selvin and his co-winner, Dr. Harvey T.McMahon (Medical Research Council,Laboratory of Molecular Biology,Cambridge, England), were awardedthe prize in Tel Aviv on May 23, 2006,during the annual meeting of Tel AvivUniversity’s Board of Governors.

Selvin wins inauguralSackler Prize in Biophysics

Newly invested Founder Professor of Engineering David M. Ceperleyaddresses the audience while Department Head Dale J. Van Harlingen,Dean Ilesanmi Adesida, and Professor Richard M. Martin look on

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Taekjip Ha, professor of physics and Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator,received the Michael and Kate Bárány Award for Young Investigators from theAmerican Biophysical Society at its annual meeting on March 5, 2007, in Baltimore.Ha is being honored for his development and application of novel single-moleculefluorescence spectroscopy and microscopy methods and for his groundbreakingdiscoveries in protein-DNA interactions and enzyme dynamics. He also received theFluorescence Young Investigator Award of the Biophysical Society in 2002. He is aFellow of the American Physical Society and the recipient of an Alfred P. SloanFoundation Fellowship, a Cottrell Scholar Award, and a Searle Scholar Award.



BY CYNDI PACELY

AUniversity of Illinois Physics andAstronomy faculty member’s

significant involvement in theEuropean Space Agency’s (ESA’s)Planck space mission brought amodel of the spacecraft to theLoomis Laboratory lobby.

Building on the award-winninglegacy of NASA’s 1989 CosmicBackground Explorer (COBE)satellite, the Planck mission seeks toobtain definitive maps of the cosmicmicrowave background anisotropiesand detailed all-sky observations ofother components of the microwavesky. When it launches in Summer2008, Planck will look for tracesof the fundamental structure andcomponents of the infant Universeand for the details of how individualand giant clusters of galaxies formedout of the initial fireball.

Benjamin Wandelt, aninternationally recognized expert inthe analysis of cosmic microwavebackground (CMB) data, is a memberof the theory and simulations teamfor the ESA/NASA Planck spacemission. He co-leads Planck’sharmonic analysis effort and hasinvented innovative algorithms thatmake the analysis of huge new datasets tractable. Through Wandelt’swork, the UI physics department isone of only a few elite Americaninstitutions to be involved in thismajor international cosmologyendeavor.

“Displaying the model in thelobby of Loomis was a great way toshow our involvement in such afront-line, international space projectin cosmology,” Wandelt said.

The model’s companion poster—visualizing the immense leaps inknowledge of the CMB backgroundthat the Planck mission hopes toachieve—was displayed at theentrance to the Astronomy Building.

Related ResearchWandelt’s graduate students

and a postdoctoral researcher arenow developing new techniques foranalyzing the data that will be sentback to Earth from the Planckspacecraft. It was Wandelt’s creationof new algorithms, which are a billiontimes faster than previously knownapproaches, that will make theanalyses possible.

“Analyzing the data will be one ofthe most challenging computationalproblems ever attempted,” Wandeltcommented. “The payoff of solvingthese analysis problems is massive.The Planck data promise to be thebest data set for years to come forunderstanding the detailedcomposition of the Universe, thephysical processes that occurred whenthe Universe first formed, and theprimordial seeds of all structure in theUniverse that eventually led to the

formation of our Galaxy, our solarsystem, and life,” he added.

In addition, Wandelt is trainingthe next generation of researchers towork on the analysis of the Planckproject and the following round ofCMB observations.

A theoretical cosmologist,Wandelt’s recent projects includestudying the bispectrum of the CMBanisotropy as measured by the

Wandelt makes major contributions to Planck space mission

COBE/DMR space mission toconstrain the non-linearity ofthe perturbations created duringinflation. He has also participated inefforts to predict the properties ofexotic forms of dark matter,designed to solve puzzles relatedto observations of the clusteringproperties of matter on galaxy scales.

Wandelt received his PhD intheoretical physics from Imperial

College, London. He worked as apostdoctoral fellow at the TheoreticalAstrophysics Center in Copenhagen,Denmark, and as a research associateat Princeton University’s physicsdepartment before joining theUniversity of Illinois in August 2001.

Measure Twice, Install OnceMade in Europe by a company

that builds mock-ups for ESA, thePlanck model crossed the Atlanticbefore making stops at institutionswhose scientists are involved in theproject.

During 2005, the model washoused on the campus of the JetPropulsion Lab at Caltech. In 2006,it made an appearance at the annualmeeting of the AmericanAstronomical Society (AAS) inWashington, D.C., then took upresidence for a semester at HaverfordCollege in Pennsylvania beforearriving in Urbana in June 2006.

Once it arrived, Wandelt andhis students moved the crated modelfrom the loading dock into the spacebetween the classrooms on the groundfloor of Loomis Laboratory beforerealizing there were no doorways wideenough to move the crate into thelobby.

After considering various routes,they found that the second floor doorto the staircase leading into the lobbyis slightly wider and would allowpassage of the uncrated model.

“It took three of us to carry themodel into the elevator in the centerof Loomis, then up to the secondfloor and through that doorway withnot one-tenth of an inch to spare,”Wandelt said.

Ben Wandelt with the Planck spacecraft mock-up



Department News

BY GORDON BAYM

Aspecial symposium was held September 29–30, 2006, at Loomis Laboratoryof Physics to celebrate the life and science of Vijay R. Pandharipande

(1940–2006), Donald B. and Elizabeth M. Willett Professor of Physics. Vijay, who joined the faculty in 1972, was the leading figure of his

generation in the development of the nuclear many-body problem. His seminalresearch program to describe nuclear systems in terms of elementary two- andthree-body interactions of the constituent nucleons led to a state-of-the-artcomprehensive, quantitative, and reliable theory of nuclei, neutron matter,and neutron stars, as well as strongly interacting atomic and condensed mattersystems.

Vijay remained throughout his life the center of a close scientific family,including the new generation of nuclear and many-particle theorists that hetrained and his other coworkers. This symposium brought together his scientificfamily and other friends, not only to remember his manifold contributions, butalso to look forward to nuclear and condensed matter physics made all the richerby Vijay.

The keynote speaker, Nobel Laureate Ben Mottelson (NORDITA), openedthe symposium Friday afternoon with the provocative question, “Do we reallyunderstand the nuclear shell model?” That evening, the participants sharedmemories of Vijay and a sumptuous Indian feast, hosted by Vijay’s wife, Dr.Rajeshwari Pandharipande, at the new Alice Campbell Alumni Center.

Speakers on Saturday included Gordon Baym (Illinois), Bob Wiringa(MS ’74, PhD ’78, Argonne National Laboratory), Chris Pethick (NORDITA),Tony Leggett (Illinois), Joe Carlson (MS ’79, PhD ’83, Los Alamos NationalLaboratory), Ingo Sick (Basel), and Wick Haxton (U. Washington). Copies ofall talks are available for download at www.physics.uiuc.edu/vijay.htm.

Remembering Larry BellBY JANET L. KANE

Larry L. Bell, Physics facilitymanager for the past six years,

died Monday, September 11, 2006,following an early-morning bicycleaccident. Larry began his employmentin the Department of Physics in 1996as a cryotechnician for the heliumliquefier.

Larry’s contributions to thedepartment were broad and deep.He assisted in the oversight of manyof the recent construction andremodeling projects—the mainlecture halls in Loomis, the theoreticalcondensed matter physics floors inthe Engineering Sciences Building,Loomis’s new roof, two new

Larry L. Bell

conference rooms, and many researchlaboratories. As Physics’ “go-to guy,”he also handled day-to-day facilityproblems, such as burned-out lights,leaking pipes, contrary locks, andstrange smells, with tireless efficiencyand friendliness.

Larry’s most recent contributionhas benefited researchers across thecampus—he oversaw the installationof a new helium liquefier in Loomis.This complex and challenging projectconsumed much of Larry’s energy andtime through the summer of 2006.Thanks to his experience, insight, andplain hard work, we now have areliable, high-capacity liquefier thatwill serve the campus for the nextdecade or more.

Outside of work, Larry’s liferevolved around his church, hisfamily, and anything to do withairplanes. In recent years, his hobbywas constructing intricate airplanemodels, but the first 20 years of hiscareer were spent in the U.S. AirForce, repairing B-52s. During hisAir Force career, he was stationedboth in the United States and abroadand served in some harsh locations.

Larry was a talented,conscientious, and very likable man.He is sorely missed by all of us,although we are doing our best to“Improvise, adapt, and overcome!”—Larry’s approach to his work and thetag line on all his email messages.

Vijay R. Pandharipande Prize in Nuclear Physics

The Department of Physics is very pleased to announce the Vijay R.Pandharipande Prize in Nuclear Physics. In addition to his extraordinaryscientific achievements, Vijay will be remembered with great affection forhis unstinting dedication to his students.

A special fund has been endowed at the University of Illinois Foundationfor the prize; earnings from the endowment will be used to present inperpetuity an annual cash award and plaque to the year’s outstandingnuclear physics graduate student.

If you would like to make a gift to the prize fund, please send yourcheck to the University of Illinois Foundation, 1305 West Green Street,Urbana, IL 61801-2962. Be sure to include the fund number (773489)with your remittance.

You may also make a gift online at www.physics.uiuc.edu/support.Once you enter your gift amount, you will be directed to the secureUniversity of Illinois Foundation’s “Online Giving” site for your personaland credit card information.

If you have questions about the prize or about giving to the University ofIllinois, please contact Celia Elliott, Department of Physics, 217.244.7725,[email protected].

Celebrating Vijay!

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Participants in the special symposium Celebrating Vijay!, September 29–30, 2006



Professor James Stark Koehler was apioneer in metal defects and their

interactions. During wartime, hestudied deformation of metals andmeasured self-diffusion in uranium.After the war, he formulated the firstaccurate theory for the motion anddamping of pinned dislocations.At Illinois, his students perfectedmethods to quench point defects intovery pure metals and to study theirproperties and subsequent interactionsthrough careful temperature-timesequences of annealing. He led acomprehensive program of radiationdamage investigations, with studiesof both metals and semiconductors.After visiting Cambridge in 1957, heorganized the first Illinois capabilityfor direct study of defects in solidsthrough transmission electronmicroscopy. The classification schemeproposed by Koehler’s group,identifying the mechanisms involvedin the various stages of radiationdamage annealing in metals, was oftenchallenged but remains in place today.

Koehler was born November 10,1914, in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.His study of physics began in thelocal college (now the University ofWisconsin, Oshkosh), where hegraduated in 1935. For graduatestudy he went to the University ofMichigan, then notable for itssummer symposia on theoreticalphysics, which began in 1928. Thesesymposia brought leading theoreticalphysicists from Europe to spend theirsummers in Ann Arbor. At Michigan,Jim did theoretical research onhindered rotation in methyl alcoholwith David Dennison, discoverer ofthe spin of the proton. In his 1940thesis, Jim acknowledged ProfessorDennison’s stimulation and alsothanked Professor H. M. Randallfor his “encouragement and advice.”Randall, beginning in 1910, had builtMichigan Physics into a prominentdepartment. It was in Ann Arborin 1938 that Jim met his futurecolleague Frederick Seitz, one ofthe summer lecturers.

Michigan awarded Koehler aRackham Traveling PostdoctoralFellowship, which he used at theUniversity of Pennsylvania withSeitz. At Penn, his research interestschanged to the theory of solids, inparticular to problems of mechanicaldeformation, and his secondpublication was already in thisfield. The next year he went toWestinghouse as Research Fellow, oneof the positions created in Pittsburghby Ed Condon as associate director ofresearch. Koehler became a physicsinstructor at Carnegie Tech in 1942,where a substantial commitment toresearch in the solid state was beingmade, and he set up an experimentallab, funded by the National Defense

Research Committee. His originalfocus was on plastic waves in metalsupon impact. By 1944, Koehler joinedthe Manhattan Engineer District, tostudy effects produced in solids byirradiation. One of his manycontributions was measurement ofthe self-diffusion activation energy ofuranium, which was used to calculatethe change in shape of the cylindricaluranium slugs in the Hanfordplutonium-producing reactors.After the war, the new Office ofNaval Research in 1947 began supportfor his work on plastic deformation.

In 1949, Koehler was invited tojoin the new Illinois departmentprogram in condensed matter physics.Koehler moved his Navy equipment toUrbana, and ONR support continuedthrough 1970. Upon his arrival,substantial support from the AtomicEnergy Commission began for aprogram in radiation damage, whichused the Illinois cyclotron. Later hisdream was realized to have a dedicatedfacility for “simple” radiation damage(2-MeV electrons) in thenew Illinois MaterialsResearch Laboratory.Koehler also enjoyedyears of research supportfrom the Army ResearchOffice (Durham).

Altogether, Koehlersupervised 45 doctoraldissertations, 7 atCarnegie Tech (nowCarnegie MellonUniversity) and 38 atthe University of IllinoisUrbana-Champaign,where he enjoyed the contributions ofover two dozen postdoctoral associatesand the presence of frequent visitorsfrom other research centers in defectphysics. In part because of thiswidespread scientific family, andin part because of his pioneeringdiscoveries, Koehler had a big presenceat many international conferenceson defects in metals.

In theory, Koehler continuedpersonal research on defect problems,and he supervised the work of severalstudents in dislocation-related theses.In experiment, his students andassociates used many differenttechniques: internal friction,macroscopic deformation, electricalresistivity, X-ray diffraction, energyrelease, transmission electronmicroscopy, X-ray anomaloustransmission, proton channeling, andthe emission of channeling radiation.Koehler’s publications span 57 years.

Among the achievements ofKoehler’s many students andpostdoctorals were prominent careersin industry (Bell Laboratories, GeneralElectric, Philips, several aerospacecompanies, and others), of teachingand research at universities (among

James S. Koehler, 1914–2006

them Columbia, Illinois, Missouri,Northwestern, Utah, Wisconsinand abroad in Tokyo, Seoul, andin Europe) and of research andadministration at national laboratories(Argonne, Oak Ridge, Sandia, and

abroad in Japan andGermany).

Koehler was aFellow of theAmerican PhysicalSociety and wasawarded a J.S.GuggenheimFellowship. Heretired from teachingin the summer of1981, and that fallattended the YamadaConference V on

Point Defects and Defect Interactionsin Metals, Kyoto, Japan, where he washonored by his many colleagues whohad spent periods of time in Urbana.

His name is easily attached tosome fundamental properties ofdefects in crystals. The Peach–Koehlerformula gives the basic relation nowwidely used for the force on adislocation in terms of an appliedstress, and the vibrating string modelis the first formulation of the equationof motion underlying dislocationdynamics. Almost nobody believedKoehler’s 1952 prediction of L2 and L4

loop segment length dependence ofthe elastic modulus and internalfriction, respectively, until 1956measurements by Thompson andHolmes of Oak Ridge NationalLaboratory showed it to be correct.Thereafter, this signature became thestandard for identifying dislocationlosses, and one of the most sensitivedetectors of interstitials available.Basic results in radiation damagewere the Cooper–Koehler–Marxexperiment, the first to show thatinterstitials move at very lowtemperatures in metals, which meantthat previous room-temperaturemeasurements were of little use in

understanding the atomic detailsof radiation damage, and theMagnuson–Palmer–Koehlerexperiment, the first to show theexistence of interstitial-vacancyclose-pairs. Extensive further work,on interstitial-impurity interactions,demonstrated that these interactions,specific to each impurity, play adecisive role in the annealing ofradiation damage. Finally, theBauerle–Koehler experiment ongold first showed convincingly howvacancy properties can be studiedquantitatively by rapid quenchingand systematic annealing.

Jim Koehler was an inquisitive,critical and cheerful man. Everymorning he would appear in the lab,often with a glint in his eye and thegreeting “I’ve got a wild idea!” Thisfrequently led to critical discussionand sometimes to experimentalexploration and improvement.He was tightly focused when workingon a problem, he spoke and wroteeconomically, and he could ignorebureaucratic demands.

Koehler had many scientificvisitors, for example, GuntherLeibfried of Jülich. Although theirpersonal styles could only be describedas complementary, their mutual focusand honesty about the basic questionsof defect physics, not to mentiontennis, drew Leibfried and Koehlertogether, with Leibfried makingannual visits.

Jim and his wife Harrietentertained warmly and often intheir home in Champaign. Localstudents and staff got to meet manyinternationally known personalities indefect physics informally in this way.The Koehlers’ interests in music wereobvious. For a time, their living roomwas filled with two grand pianos,which Harriet and her friend BettySeitz played together. Jim lovedreading, upon which he increasinglyrelied for pleasure in his retirement.In later years, he was devoted to thewelfare of Harriet, who even as herhealth deteriorated before her deathsix years before his, retainedremarkable talents on the piano.He died in Urbana on June 19, 2006.

Ralph O. SimmonsAndrew V. GranatoUrbana, Illinois2006

Jim Koehler, 1959, in his laboratory

Jim Koehler was an

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cheerful man. Every

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Department News

Arecord four Physics faculty, twoformer Physics postdocs, and

five distinguished alumni wererecognized in December as 2006APS Fellows for their seminalcontributions to physics.

Charles F. Gammie, professor ofphysics and of astronomy, washonored for his work on elucidatingastrophysical turbulence, particularlyin black hole magnetospheres, star-forming interstellar clouds, andcircumstellar disks. AssociateProfessor Robert G. Leigh wasrecognized for his pioneeringcontributions to string theory,supersymmetric gauge theory, thetheory of the electroweak phasetransition, and the theory ofD-branes.

His leadership and hardwarecontributions to the CLEOcollaboration and contributions tothe understanding of charm hadronicdecays and excited states were citedfor Professor Mats A. Selen. AndProfessor Scott S. Willenbrock washonored for his pioneering work insingle top quark production athadron colliders and forcontributions to understanding ofthe associated production of Higgsand vector bosons as a discoverychannel at the Tevatron and theLarge Hadron Collider.

Former postdocs Girsh Blumbergand Jörg Schmalian were recognizedfor their outstanding work incondensed matter physics. Blumberg,a researcher at Bell Labs Innovationsin Murray Hill, New Jersey, wascited for his seminal contributionsto elucidating the physics of spin,charge and superconductingcorrelations in 1D and 2D complexoxide compounds using Ramanscattering techniques. Schmalian, anassociate professor in the Departmentof Physics and Astronomy at IowaState University, was recognized forhis pioneering contributions to thetheory of strongly correlatedmaterials, including studies onthe role of disorder, frustration,and unconventional pairing inquantum many-body systems.

Shirley Suiling Chan (MS ’71, PhD’77 [Biophysics]), a research associatein physics at Princeton University,was recognized for explorations of thespectra, structure, and dynamics ofproteins and nuclei acids and for her

dedicated service to the AmericanPhysical Society.

Peter M. Gehring (MS ’84, PhD ’89),a physicist at the National Institute ofStandards and Technology inGaithersburg, Maryland, was citedfor his major contributions to ourunderstanding of the lattice dynamicsof relaxor ferroelectrics and forelucidating the nature of the spindynamics of cuprate oxides byneutron scattering.

Eli I. Rosenberg (MS ’66, PhD ’71),a professor in the Department ofPhysics and Astronomy at Iowa StateUniversity, was honored for hisdefinitive contributions to the firstmeasurements of quark structure ofthe pion, the electronics design forthe DELPHI electromagneticcalorimeter, and the developmentof the BaBar on-line software.

Lawrence B. Schein (PhD ’71) wasrecognized by the Forum on Industrialand Applied Physics for his lifelongcontributions to electrophotography,electrostatics, and transport in organicsolids. A holder of 10 patents, Scheinhas pioneered copier and printertechnology advancements at XeroxResearch (1970–1983), IBM(1983–1994), and as an independentconsultant (1994–present).

David W. Snoke (MS ’84, PhD ’90),an associate professor in theDepartment of Physics andAstronomy at the University ofPittsburgh whose current interest isBose–Einstein condensation ofexcitons in two and three dimensions,was cited for his pioneering work onthe experimental and theoreticalunderstanding of dynamical opticalprocesses in semiconductor systems.

Each year, no more than one-halfof one percent of the then-currentmembership of the Society isrecognized by their peers for electionto the status of Fellow. Each newFellow is elected after careful andcompetitive review andrecommendation by a fellowshipcommittee on the unit level,additional review by the APSFellowship Committee, and finalapproval by the full APS Council.Fellowship is therefore a distincthonor signifying recognition by one’sprofessional peers. We congratulate allour Fellows on achieving this majorcareer milestone.

After 28 years onthe Physics faculty,

Enrico Gratton retiredin 2006. With WilliamMantulin, Grattonestablished at Illinoisthe first nationalfacility dedicated tofluorescencespectroscopy, theLaboratory forFluorescence Dynamics(LFD). The LFD,supported by theNational Center forResearch Resources division of theNational Institutes of Health, grew tobecome the premier national researchfacility in biomedical fluorescencespectroscopy. The LFD designed,tested, and implemented advancesin technology, especially hardware,automation software, andapplications, for the biomedicalcommunity. The state-of-the-art userfacility was known internationallyfor developing instrumentationfor time-resolved fluorescencespectroscopy using frequency domainmethods and providing technicalassistance to visiting scientists.

Gratton was born in Merate(Como) Italy and received hisdoctorate in physics from theUniversity of Rome. He came tothe University of Illinois in 1976as a research associate under thedirection of Gregorio Weber inthe Department of Biochemistry.He joined the Department of Physicsin 1978. He is a fellow of theAmerican Physical Society.

A short list of Gratton’s scientificachievements includes thedevelopment of multi-frequencyphase and modulation fluorometry;firsts in lifetime data analysis,including distributions and globalanalysis; seminal contributions tothe Laurdan generalized polarizationapproach; pioneering work in theanalysis of FCS data, including PCHand RICS; and the use of frequencydomain methods for optical imaging.Gratton is the inventor or co-inventor of 11 patents and haspublished more than 400 scientific

articles. He was thethesis adviser of 33doctoral studentsand supervised26 postdoctoralresearchers andnumerous visitingscientists at the LFD.

Recently,Gratton developeda non-invasivediagnostic tool tostudy changesoccurring at thesurface of the brain.

The technique behind the tool isbased upon near-infrared spectroscopyand is less expensive that othermethods, such as functional magneticresonance imaging and positronemission tomography.

Gratton explained how thetechnique works. “Whenever a regionof the brain is activated—directingmovement in a finger, for example—that part of the brain uses moreoxygen,” he said. “Our techniqueworks by measuring the blood flowand oxygen consumption in thebrain.”

Most recently, this technology hasbeen used to study brain oxygenationand hemodynamic changes inindividuals with obstructive sleepapnea syndrome (OSAS). For thefirst time, physicians and researchersgained information on how thebrain’s vascular system responds todiminished oxygen supply duringapnea episodes.

“Through our current research,we verified that we indeed ‘see’ thebrain,” said physician and physiologistAntonios Michalos, a staff scientist atthe LFD.

Other recent research effortsinclude the use of frequency-domainmethods to obtain near-infraredoptical images of thick tissues, single-molecule studies of protein dynamics,and the development of opticalmonitors to detect vascularinsufficiency in peripheral tissues.

Friends and colleagues worldwidecelebrated Gratton’s legacy of suchdiscoveries with a retirementsymposium—which coincided withhis 60th birthday—on May 20, 2006.

“It was clear that I am not alonein my admiration and respect forProfessor Gratton,” said Julie Wright,who worked with him for 20 years.“His friends and colleagues eagerlytook time from their busy schedulesand came from as far as Denmark,Italy, and Germany to celebrate hiscareer.”

After his retirement from Illinois,Gratton moved to the University ofCalifornia, Irvine, where he is aprofessor in the Department ofBiomedical Engineering. The LFDhas also moved to UCI.

Bumper crop of APS Fellows in 2006 A legacy of achievement

Enrico Gratton as a brand newassistant professor, 1978

Charles F. Gammie Robert G. Leigh Mats A. Selen Scott S. Willenbrock



his later role in leading the Departmentof Physics.

“Working with an interdisciplinaryframework was a great experience,”Sullivan explained. “With representationin ACDIS from political science,geography, history, engineering,mathematics, philosophy, and numerousother fields, we contributed to sound,interdisciplinary perspectives onimportant issues of peace and security.”

In 2001, he was selected by theSecretary of Energy to lead the NuclearNonproliferation Subcommittee of theU.S. National Nuclear SecurityAdministration Advisory Committee.In addition, he received a four-yearappointment to the Advisory Panel ofthe security-related Civil Science andTechnology Sub-Programme of theNATO Science Committee.

His detailed calculations of shockwave profiles from undergroundnuclear tests—a collaboration withProfessor Fred Lamb, his Physicscolleague at Illinois—along withstudies of technologies for enhancingthe effectiveness of peace operations,comprehensive nuclear test ban issues,science-based stockpile stewardship,technology and policy of ballisticmissile defenses, arms controlverification, military and civilian usesof space, and science and public policywere recognized with the Leo SzilardAward from the American PhysicalSociety in 2000.

At the helmNamed interim head of Physics inMarch 2000, Sullivan became head inMarch 2001. At the outset, he wasinvolved in remodeling the five floorsof Physics space in the EngineeringSciences Building, which enabled therelocation of the condensed mattertheory faculty, together with their

postdocs and students, and of all ofthe upper-level teaching laboratories.Completing the two-year project freedup much-needed office and researchspace in Loomis to accommodate thehiring of additional faculty members.

Following the trends of the fieldand the needs of the department,Sullivan oversaw the addition ofprofessors in astrophysics, condensedmatter and nanoscience, opticalphysics, biological physics, high-energy physics, and nuclear physics, aswell as in physics education research.

“I’m proud to have increased thediversity of our faculty as well,” headded. “Now, 7 of the 69 full-timefaculty members are women.”

Another positive change wasthe addition of a departmentalinformation technology administrator,for whom Sullivan secured partialfunding from the College ofEngineering.

“The IT sophistication of thedepartment is state-of-the-art on theU of I campus and also stacks up wellamong departments nationwide,”Sullivan said.

Retirement plansNow Sullivan and his wife, Sheila,are looking forward to spending moretime with their son, daughter, andgranddaughter, as well as to their firstretirement travel adventure—a much-anticipated trip to New Zealand.

His career-long commitment tothe Department of Physics, theUniversity of Illinois and to armscontrol work remains his focus for thecoming years. Through connectionswith his former colleagues at ACDISand elsewhere, Sullivan is still workingto influence the future—giving talksin U of I classes, presentinginformation to students and faculty atother universities around the country,and working with government andnon-government agencies.

He points to recent renewedinterest in the ultimate goal of theglobal elimination of nuclear weapons,a vision endorsed by President RonaldReagan and Soviet General SecretaryMikhail Gorbachev at their historic1986 Reykjavik Summit. In an earlyJanuary 2007 Wall Street Journal op-ed, George Schultz, William Perry,Henry Kissinger, and Sam Nunncalled for urgent new action to betaken toward fulfilling the Reykjavikvision. In a late January 2007 WSJop-ed, Gorbachev added his fullendorsement.

“The growing spread of nuclearweapons poses a threat to all andnew initiatives are badly needed,”Sullivan said.

BY CYNDI PACELEY

Jeremiah Sullivan is certain of twofacts concerning his academic

career: the timing was one of themost exciting periods for the field ofphysics and the University of Illinoiswas the best place to spend those 39 years, the last 6 of which he servedas department head before retiring inJuly 2006.

After receiving his PhD fromPrinceton University in 1964, Sullivanspent three years as a researchassociate in the theoretical physicsgroup at the Stanford LinearAccelerator Center (SLAC). In histhird year, the lab became operationaland began producing ground-breakingresults.

High-energy theorySLAC’s success paved the way forfuture complementary experiments ata higher-energy accelerator to be builtin Illinois. Sullivan knew that thedecision to site the laboratory—laternamed the Fermi National AcceleratorLaboratory (Fermilab)—in Illinoiswould provide great possibilities forthe state and its universities.

“I saw that the new laboratorywould be the next place whereexciting discoveries would be madein my area of physics,” Sullivan said.

The potential for majordiscoveries in particle physics ledmany universities across the nation toexpand their faculty numbers in high-energy physics. That was good newsfor a promising new PhD. Sullivanwas recruited by both Illinois and theUniversity of California, San Diego,but chose Illinois and “never doubted”that he had made the right decision.

“When I first visited Illinois, Isensed a warmth of spirit here—oftenreferred to as the ‘Urbana spirit’,”

It’s all in the timing

Sullivan commented. “All of us areproud of that collegial atmosphere,which goes back to the era of WheelerLoomis, and each subsequentgeneration has been careful to preserve it.”

Sullivan advanced rapidly. Fromhis start as an assistant professor in1967, he was promoted to associateprofessor two years later and attainedthe rank of full professor in 1973. Inthose early years of his career, Sullivanmade significant contributions toparticle physics, particularly toelectromagnetic interactions and tohadron-hadron processes at highenergy.

A change of directionIn 1974, he began what ultimatelydeveloped into his major researchdirection when he accepted aninvitation to become a member ofJASON, a group of experts whoprovide technical analyses to theUnited States government on scientificissues relevant to national security. Hebecame increasingly interested in armscontrol and nuclear nonproliferation.

In part, his participation inJASON prompted faculty membersinvolved with the Illinois Program inArms Control, Disarmament, andInternational Security (ACDIS) toname Sullivan as the first paid, part-time director in 1986. Established in1978, the program brought togethera core group of faculty, as well asassociates, affiliates, and students frommore than 20 disciplines, in pursuitof progressive and relevant academicresearch in international security.

Sullivan’s directorship of ACDISstrengthened his commitment to otherroles in the evolution of U.S. defensepolicy. Through his work with anumber of important studies andreviews, he became known for hissignificant contributions to thetechnology of peace over the course of20 years. The campus-wide experienceof being ACDIS director was, he feels,one of the best preparations he had for

A look at Jeremiah Sullivan’s 39-year career

Jeremiah Sullivan in 1992

Marion Evans and Jeremiah Sullivan setting up a demonstration for Physics 108.



Julie Wrightexperiences therewards of retirement

After 20 years in a variety ofcapacities with the Department of

Physics, Julie Wright retired in October2006. Wright spent most of her 20 years working with Enrico Gratton and William Mantulin in theLaboratory for Fluorescence Dynamics(LFD). Wright joined the LFD in1986, one month after it was founded.

“I’ve enjoyed working for Physics,”Wright said. “It’s a good departmentthat really tries to accommodate itsstaff.”

Prior to coming to Physics, sheworked for the Office of UniversityAudits and for the AtmosphericSciences Section of the Illinois StateWater Survey. Her first campusposition was with the Departmentof Agronomy.

Wright points to the advances incomputer technology as the biggestchange during her entire 40-yearworking career. She’s experienced theprogression first-hand, starting with herfirst job as a keypunch operator forZenith Corporation.

“While working at the IllinoisState Water Survey, we procured one ofthe first word processing machines—aWang system that was the size of a deskand recorded on cassette tapes,” Wrightsaid. “At University Audits, I used anIBM “recording typewriter” and thenmoved up to a DOS-based personalcomputer. When I came to Physics, Ibecame familiar with the Macintoshcomputer, along with D-Base III andprograms for preparing manuscripts.The World Wide Web, as it was knownthen, was just coming over thehorizon.”

A native of Paris, Illinois, Wrightnow lives near Villa Grove, nearer herson and daughter and their families.In her free time, she enjoys reading,scrap booking, and crocheting. She isalso very involved in activities at herchurch.

And, at least for a little longer,Wright is still on the University ofIllinois campus, serving as anadministrative assistant with theHoward Hughes Medical Institute,working part-time for Physics ProfessorTaekjip Ha, an HHMI investigator.

Department News

Myron B. Salamon, formerprofessor of physics and

associate dean of the College ofEngineering at the University ofIllinois at Urbana-Champaign,became dean of the School ofNatural Sciences and Mathematics(NS&M) at The University of Texasat Dallas (UTD) on October 15,2006. Salamon also holds a newlyendowed distinguished chair positionin physics.

“I was attracted to UTD by itsdrive to become a major publicresearch university and, in particular,by NS&M’s pivotal role in achievingthat goal,” Salamon said. “My aim isto make the school a model for 21st-century academic research andeducation. It will draw strength fromtraditional disciplines, but will attackscientific and technological problemsand the training of young scientistsfrom an integrated, cross-disciplinaryperspective.”

“We are delighted to have sucha highly regarded scientist andadministrator as Myron Salamonaccept this important academicleadership position at UTD,” saiduniversity president David E. Daniel.“This is a key hire for UTD as itpursues its goal of joining the ranksof the nation’s top researchuniversities.”

Daniel and Salamon werecolleagues at Illinois, where Danielserved as dean of the College ofEngineering before he became thefourth president of UTD on June 1,2005.

“Having worked closely withDr. Salamon, I know him to be bothan expert researcher and giftedadministrator,” Daniel said. “Inparticular, he is a very effectiverecruiter of academic talent, whichwill serve NS&M well as it continuesto expand its faculty, degree programs,and areas of research. Dr. Salamon isexceptionally well prepared to make avery significant, positive impact atUTD.”

Salamon received a bachelor’sdegree in physics from the Carnegie

Salamon named dean at UT DallasInstitute of Technology (nowCarnegie-Mellon University) anda PhD degree in physics from theUniversity of California, Berkeley.In 1966, he joined the Departmentof Physics at the University ofIllinois. Since 2000, he has been theassociate dean and director of theExperiment Station in Illinois’College of Engineering.

A condensed matterexperimentalist, Salamon is notedfor his work on phase transitions,superconductivity, and the propertiesof magnetic materials. Most recently,his research has focused on themagnetic behavior of oxides andnanophase materials and on phasetransitions in high-temperaturesuperconductors. He supervised25 PhD theses while at Illinois.

During 1995/96, Salamon servedas a distinguished visiting professorwith the Japan Ministry of Educationat Tsukuba University, and in 1996was the Berndt Matthias Scholar atLos Alamos National Laboratory.He received an Alexander vonHumbodt Senior Scientist Prizein 1975 and was an A.P. SloanFoundation Fellow. He is a Fellow ofthe American Physical Society and amember of the American Associationfor the Advancement of Science andthe Neutron Scattering Society.

Robinson moves to University CollegeIan K. Robinson has left Urbana

for the Department of Physics andAstronomy at University College,London, in part to take advantageof research possibilities offered by thenew Diamond Light Source (DLS),a synchrotron radiation (SR) facilitypresently being built at theRutherford Laboratory near Oxford.

Robinson received his doctoratein biophysics from Harvard in 1981,after receiving an MA in physicsfrom the University of Cambridgein 1976. He was a member of thetechnical staff at AT&T Bell Labs(Murray Hill, New Jersey) from1981 to 1992, where he sharedresponsibility (with P. Fuoss) for thedevelopment and implementation ofan X-ray surface diffraction beamlineat the National Synchrotron LightSource at Brookhaven NationalLaboratory. He came to theUniversity of Illinois as a professorof physics in 1992. He supervisednine PhD theses while at Illinois.

A condensed matterexperimentalist, Robinson specializesin X-ray diffraction using synchrotronradiation. During his years at BellLabs, he developed techniques forstudying surface structure using X-raydiffraction. These methods, based oncrystal truncation rods, have becomethe definitive technique fordetermining atomic positions at

surfaces and interfaces. Thesesurface methods are still used todayat the major SR facilities, includingthe National Synchrotron LightSource (Brookhaven), theEuropean Synchrotron RadiationFacility (Grenoble), the AdvancedPhoton Source (Argonne) andSynchrotron Radiation Source(Daresbury).

More recently, Robinson hasexploited the very high coherenceof the latest SR sources to enabledirect three-dimensional imagingof structure. Coherent X-raydiffraction methods, whichRobinson will further expand atDLS, may be useful for examiningstrain distributions inside complexmaterials.

The DLS is the largestUK-funded scientific facility to bebuilt for more than 30 years. It islocated in south Oxfordshire onthe Harwell Chilton sciencecampus.



James P. Wolfe, who spent his entirefaculty career at the University of

Illinois, retired in Summer 2006 after30 years in Urbana. He was a principalinvestigator in the Frederick SeitzMaterials Research Laboratory (MRL),where he concentrated on the physics ofexcitonic matter and phonons in solids.

Wolfe received his bachelor’s anddoctoral degrees in physics from theUniversity of California, Berkeley.He remained at Berkeley as an assistantresearch physicist, and with CarsonJeffries’ group, he applied optical andmicrowave techniques to the newlydiscovered phenomena of electron-holedroplets in Ge. Using infrared imaging,they took the first photo of an electron-hole droplet. He joined the Departmentof Physics at Illinois in 1976.

Best known for developing novelimaging techniques to study excitonicmatter and phonon propagation at lowtemperatures, Wolfe’s group createdtime-resolved luminescence imagingtechniques to determine the spatialdistribution and mobilities of electron-hole droplets and excitons in bulksemiconductors, such as Si, Ge, andCu2O. They discovered a Cerenkov-like“sonic barrier” for droplet motion in Siand observed (and explained) extremelyhigh excitonic mobilities in Cu

2O.

Their early spectroscopic evidence forBose–Einstein condensation of excitonsin Cu

2O led to extensive studies of this

system that now point instead to a

classical gas of excitons in contact withshort-lived biexcitons—a sort ofexcitonic “dark matter” yet to beobserved directly.

In the MRL Laser Lab, Wolfe’sgroup combined picosecond laserspectroscopy and micro-imaging tomeasure the in-plane motion ofphotoexcited carriers in semiconductorquantum wells. Rapid transport(at near sonic velocities) was found atlow temperatures. They also performedphotoluminescence experiments onexcitons and biexcitons in GaAsquantum wells, observing ideal-gas-likethermodynamics at low densities andevidence for the onset of Bose–Einsteinstatistics at higher densities.

An amazing offshoot of thegroup’s exciton experiments was theinvention of a technique for imagingthe ballistic propagation of phononsat low temperatures. Since itsintroduction in 1978, “phononimaging” has contributed graphicallyand quantitatively to far-reachingtopics in phonon physics. Utilizingtiny superconducting detectors andlaser-scanned heat sources, phononimaging hasprovided graphicinsights into theareas of phononfocusing, latticedynamics, andphonon scatteringat interfaces,superlattices, anddefects. Phononimaging techniqueswere later extendedto study ultrasoundin anisotropic mediaand to probe theacoustic propertiesof “phononiclattices.”

Most recently,Wolfe’s group hasobserved a highly selective absorptionof ballistic phonons caused byquasiparticles (unpaired electrons) insuperconducting Pb. They are usingthis new probe to test Overhauser’shypothesis of an unusual spin-density-wave ground state in Pb.

Wolfe retires

Wolfe directed multi-investigatorprojects for the National ScienceFoundation and the U.S. Departmentof Energy at the MRL. Between 1999and 2002, he served as the Physics

associate head forgraduate programs,directing graduatestudent admissions andappointments, whichhe says was “a terrificopportunity to meetand assist faculty andstudents in thedepartment.”He also served onseveral high-levelcampus committeesover the years.

A dedicated andgifted teacher, Wolfedeveloped a textbookentitled “Elements ofThermal Physics” thatis used in our

introductory thermodynamics course.His research book Phonon Imaging(Cambridge University Press, 2005,ISBN-10: 0521620619) has beendescribed by his peers as a “masterpiece”and a “comprehensive and highlyreadable review” with “spectaculargraphics.”

He has supervised the theses of 25doctoral students during the course ofhis busy and productive career. Hisadvice to young and aspiring professors:“Position yourself for discovery and keepan open mind, because nature is full ofwonderful surprises.”

In 2004, Wolfe was awarded theFrank Isakson Prize of the AmericanPhysical Society “for contributions to thefundamental understanding of excitonicmatter in semiconductors, including itspropagation, made possible by pioneeringdevelopment of imaging techniques thatlend graphic insights to electronic andvibrational processes in solids.” He has anumber of collaborations in the UnitedStates and abroad. He received anAlexander von Humboldt FoundationU.S. Senior Scientist Award in 1988(Munich), and a Japan Society for thePromotion of Science Fellowship in1991 (Hokkaido). He is a Fellow of theAmerican Physical Society.

While Wolfe is maintaining hisresearch interests, retirement is allowinghim and his wife, Kathy, who recentlyretired from a career in nursing, tospend more time with their coast-to-coast family and enjoy the thrill ofgrandparenting.

Formerly a professor in the Departmentof Theoretical and Applied Mechanics

at Illinois, Richard Weaver joined theDepartment of Physics in August 2006.

Weaver’s current research on thelocking of nonlinear auto-oscillations inan ultrasonic system—called a uaser(pronounced wayzer)—has shown that theoscillations exhibit stimulated emission orabsorption, depending on details of theirproperties, and that they exhibit super-radiance, in that their power output scaleswith the square of the number of oscillators.

“We anticipate that the systems may beuseful for asking questions about the

Weaver joins PhysicsL.

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Jim Wolfe as a brand new assistantprofessor, 1976

The physicist as grandfather—Anne is underwhelmed by maximizing the freeenergy of the conduction electrons

dynamics of optical lasers,” Weaver said.“It is our hope that the ultrasonic analog,with its longer wavelengths andconvenient frequencies, should allowexperiments not possible on opticallasers.”

His theoretical work on the statisticsof waves in random and multiplyscattering media has applications tomesoscopic electronics, to quantumchaos, to seismology, and to structuralacoustics. His experimental workexplores the subject using ultrasoundin solids. Preprints of selected recentpublications on these and other topics

are available on Weaver’s faculty pageon the Physics website atwww.physics.uiuc.edu/people/WeaverR.

Weaver received the Hetényi Awardfrom the Society for ExperimentalMechanics in 2004 and was elected afellow of the Acoustical Society ofAmerica in 1996. He was a guest editorfor the journal Ultrasonics in 1997,2001, and 2003, and currently serves asassociate editor of the Journal of theAcoustical Society of America. Hereceived a PhD in astrophysics fromCornell University.

Phonon imaging of internaldiffraction of ultrasound in silicon(Hauser and Wolfe)

Engineering Physics undergraduateT. Patrick Walsh has won one of

eight College of Engineering Haroldand Ruth Hayward Scholarships for2006/07. The scholarships are awardedfor academic achievement, leadership,service, and initiative.

A senior from Riverside, Illinois,Walsh is a double major in engineeringphysics and economics. Cited for hisinvolvement in the Illinois chapter ofEngineers Without Borders, Walsh spentthe summer of 2005 bringing electricityand hope to a village in rural India farfrom the country’s power grid.

His experience in India taught Walsh that the problem of energy productionand distribution in the developing world must be addressed much morecomprehensively. “I’m now interested, first, in long-term development oftechnologies that will increase global energy production by orders of magnitude,and second, in short-term development of technologies that will directly benefitthe world’s poor.” He is currently working on a project to design, fabricate, andmass produce small, highly efficient solar panel-charged and battery-operatedLED lanterns to replace some of the >1 billion inefficient kerosene lamps nowused in the developing world.

“Light emitting diodes—LEDs—have recently become more affordable andmore power efficient,” explained Walsh. “We seek to create the very first designproviding a real, economically sensible alternative to kerosene lighting for a largeportion of the people who lack access to electricity.”

Walsh’s project won a 2006 Phase-I, $10,000 grant from the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency in what is called the “P3” (People, Prosperity,and the Planet) award program.

The Hayward Scholarships are made possible by a generous bequest fromthe estates of Harold and Ruth Hayward to the Illinois chapter of the Tau BetaPi association. “Hap” Howard was a longtime member of the electricalengineering faculty and served as the director of the measurements program inthe Engineering Experiment Station at the University of Illinois.



Student News Alumni News

BY CYNDI PACELEY

Brian Svazas’s career proves onceagain that a physics degree is a

flexible and useful tool—howeveryou choose to use it.

As a University of Illinoisundergraduate, Svazas completedhis pre-med requirements whilemajoring in physics. He went on toearn a medical degree from ChicagoMedical School at Rosalind FranklinUniversity and interned atHines/Loyola University MedicalCenter. Ten years later he returned tothe U of I—this time at Chicago—to earn a master’s degree in publichealth, concentrating in occupationaland environmental health sciences.He also completed his residency atUIC.

Over the last 22 years, Svazas haspursued his interest in occupationalmedicine in various ways—asprincipal physician for LockheedMissiles and Space and in a similarcapacity for a Japanese–Americanauto plant, as a practicing physicianfor Edward Hospital in Naperville,and as medical director for BritishPetroleum Company’s NorthAmerican operations. He was alsoa medical officer in the NavyReserves for 24 years.

In June 2006, he was namedmedical director at the FermiNational Accelerator Laboratory.“I commented to the Fermiinterview panel that I anticipatedcoming home to physics, but inretrospect it’s only a more formalrelationship now because I neverstopped using what I learned,”Svazas said.

After spending much of hiscareer in a treatment-based role, oneof the most exciting opportunitiesat Fermilab is his interaction withcolleagues in a prevention-basedcapacity.

“Currently, I’m usingexperience I gained in silicon chipmanufacturing to help in someexotic metal work,” he said. “I’mincluded on projects from the designstage, so not only do I get the joy oflearning, but also the satisfactionthat the human element isthoroughly considered andprotected.”

Hooked on PhysicsSvazas found van de Graaffgenerators and other suchexperiments “very cool,” butcredits a gifted high school teacherwith cementing his decision topursue the subject in college.

“Dr. Tchalo—dubbed the MadMacedonian for his zany teachingstyle—resembled Wolf Man Jack inappearance and speech, which madehim all the more memorable,” Svazassaid. “He taught that physics is atthe root of all science. I decided Icouldn’t go wrong doing somethingI liked that was so universallyapplicable.”

“The thing I loved most aboutthe subject was that no matter howyou approached the problem, theanswer came out the same,” he added.“That was very reassuring and almostmagical. The concept of the elegantsolution is like studying the moves ofthe grand chess masters and is akin to“form following function”—when youprovide the function in an efficientmanner, you truly have somethingbeautiful.”

Giving BackIn addition to his depth ofprofessional experience, Svazas offershis expertise to the occupational andenvironmental medicine field.

In conjunction with his master’sdegree, he received the DonaldsonAward for academic excellence andsignificant contributions to publichealth. He also was elected tofellowship in the American Collegeof Occupational and EnvironmentalMedicine and in the Chicago Instituteof Medicine.

He currently serves assecretary/treasurer on the board ofgovernors for the Central StatesOccupational Medicine Association,and for 10 years he has been a clinicalinstructor for DePaul University’snurse practitioner program.

With his new position, Svazas isclearly in an ideal place to continuecalling on his love of physics in orderto make further contributions tooccupational medicine.

“I’ve always been curious aboutFermilab from my undergraduatedays when professors and teachingassistants would discuss experimentsconducted at the lab,” Dr. Svazas said.“Though this is familiar ground interms of the industrial operations,the lab is constantly evolving, whichbrings a welcome challenge to learnnew things.”

Patrick Walsh comparing the lightoutput of a kerosene lamp with that ofhis proposed solar-powered LED lantern

Walsh named 2006/07 Hayward Scholarship recipient

Guttenberg named first Edelheit Fellow

N icholas Guttenberg, agraduate student in Nigel

Goldenfeld’s group, has beenselected as the first recipient of theL.S. Edelheit Family BiologicalPhysics Fellowship. The focus ofGuttenberg’s research is evolutionarydynamics; he uses numerical modelsto understand the consequences ofevolutionary mechanisms and theproperties exhibited by real evolvingsystems. He was selected for hisdemonstrated research ability and hisgreat promise for making substantial contributions to biological physics. “I see physicsas a toolbox for science,” said Guttenberg.

By developing computer simulations to model evolutionary behavior, Guttenberghopes to unravel the important behavioral factors observed in biology—diversity ofspecies, complexity in biological systems, and the evolutionary effects of mechanismssuch as horizontal gene transfer, mutation, crossover, and homologousrecombination—and to learn how to build non-biological systems having biologicalproperties. His thesis topic is exploring how invariance leads to structure in turbulentflows. The same sort of invariance would allow making a model of complexity that didnot saturate—an actual mechanism is gene mutation.

Guttenberg has already studied how model biological systems evolve more andmore structure and why they never seem to stop evolving at some point. He hasdiscovered some very simple approaches to creating artificial life computationally thatcan continue to evolve complexity without stopping, and he has begun to analyze andsystemize the behavior. These early results indicate that the popular model of a “freeenergy landscape” may not be a good starting point for evolution studies.

Guttenberg is also working in more mainstream areas of condensed matter theory;he has published results on scaling behavior in the dynamics of Abrikosov vortices insuperconductors. His other non-biological research project concerns the attempt tounderstand the flow behavior of two-dimensional fluids in the turbulent regime.

Goldenfeld refers to Guttenberg’s work as “representing an outstanding balance ofanalytical and computational theory, which, when coupled to Nicholas’ inexhaustiblecuriosity, promises to be an excellent recipe for success in biological physics.”

Guttenberg enjoys programming and has written “a bunch of games.” He is alsoan accomplished bread baker.

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Nigel Goldenfeld and Nicholas Guttenberg

Svazas appointed Fermilab medical director

Brian Svazas at Fermilab

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Dubson wins AAPT award

Michael Dubson (BS ’78), a seniorinstructor in the physics

department at the University ofColorado at Boulder, received theAmerican Association of PhysicsTeachers’ 2006 Excellence inUndergraduate Physics Teaching Awardearlier this year.

In addition to receiving the award,Dubson delivered a special lecture atthe July AAPT national meeting onthe school’s move from traditionalinstruction toward methods that morefully engage students. According toDubson, “Over the last 10 years, theway we teach freshmen and sophomorephysics at the University of Coloradoat Boulder has evolved away fromtraditional instruction toward a formatfull of interactive engagement, concepttests and peer instruction, onlinehomework, Washington Tutorials,interactive computer simulations,and exams that emphasize qualitativereasoning. Student morale hasimproved, and we have seen dramaticlearning gains as measured by standardexams. Our main strategy is the“Zeroth” Golden Rule—ReinventNothing. We let our esteemedcolleagues at other institutions do thehard work, and then we import theirsuccessful techniques.”

A member of the Colorado facultysince 1995, Dubson has worked oninnovative teaching techniques,curriculum reform, and publicoutreach. Before that, he spent 10 yearsin research on superconductivity, metal-insulator transitions, and surface scienceat The Ohio State University and atMichigan State University. He wastrained as a condensed matterexperimentalist and received his PhDat Cornell University, where his thesisadviser was Donald Holcomb (MS ’50,PhD ’54).

Physics faculty member GaryGladding (BS ’65) won the 2005AAPT Excellence in UndergraduatePhysics Teaching Award.

Joan L. Mitchell (MS ’71,PhD ’74), a Fellow and

Master Inventor at IBM, washonored with a 2006 Collegeof Engineering Alumni Awardfor Distinguished Service.A member of the NationalAcademy of Engineering,Mitchell is a leading authorityon the compression of imagedata for more efficientprocessing, storage, anddistribution. Facsimilemachines, video conferencing, the Internet,digital photography, and printing all reflecther major contributions to industrystandards such as G3 and G4, JPEG,and JBIG-1 and JBIG-2.

Immediately after graduate school,Mitchell joined the Exploratory PrintingTechnologies group at the IBM T.J. WatsonResearch Center. Since 1976, she hasworked in the field of image processing anddata compression and is a co-inventor on68 patents.

Mitchell was a leader of the JointPhotographic Experts Group, theorganization that developed JPEG imagecompression, the first color still-image datacompression international standard. Sheheaded the U.S. delegation in 1991–92 andalso served as an editor of the standard’sdocumentation—a very important role inensuring its dissemination and adoption.She has coauthored two popular books—JPEG: Still Image Data CompressionStandard (Van Nostrand Reinhold, NewYork, 1993) and MPEG Video Compression

Standard (Springer, NewYork, 1996)—which giveboth the professional andthe student answers andguidance on thesecompression standards.

Inside IBM, Mitchell’sinnovations have resulted infundamental advances inhigh-performancecompression/decompression hardwareand software for a varietyof products, from special-

purpose microprocessors to high-qualityprinters. She has received six IBMOutstanding Innovation Awards forachievements ranging from improvedimage compression algorithms to theQ-Coder. She was elected to the IBMAcademy of Technology in 1997 andnamed an IBM Fellow in 2001, the highestdistinction that the company awards toits employees. Mitchell is a Fellow of theInstitute of Electrical and ElectronicEngineers and was elected to the NationalAcademy of Engineering in 2004.

Mitchell has remained connected toIllinois, spending a sabbatical semesterin 1996 as a visiting professor in theDepartment of Electrical and ComputerEngineering and as a visiting scientist atthe Beckman Institute for AdvancedScience and Technology. In February 2005and April 2006, she returned to campus toshare career advice with the Society ofWomen Engineers, physics womengraduate students, and undergraduatestudents in physics and electrical andcomputer engineering.

Scott Anderson,1913–2006

Scott Anderson (right) presents the 1987Outstanding Physics Teaching AssistantAward to Alain Kaloyeros

Scott Anderson (MS ’36, PhD ’40)died on October 1, 2006, in

Urbana. He was 93. A strong supporterof the Department of Physics, Andersonserved as the first president of thePhysics Alumni Association andspearheaded the creation andendowment of the graduate-studentteaching award that bears his name.

Anderson was the founder ofAnderson Physics Laboratory (APL),the predecessor of APL EngineeredMaterials, Inc., of Urbana, which is theworld’s leading provider of metal halidesand amalgams for the lighting industry.He started APL in 1944 to provideindustry with the services of a physicslaboratory for sponsored research.

There he developed techniques forthe ultra-purification and controlledsizing of metal halides and mercuryalloys. This work proved to be of greatutility for the lighting industry and islargely responsible for the success ofthe metal halide lamp industry.

Prior to founding APL, Andersonwas the first physicist to be hired by theAluminum Corporation of America(later ALCOA) of New Kensington,Pennsylvania, and he taught physicsbriefly at Carleton College inNorthfield, Minnesota. He worked inthe Manhattan Project’s metallurgylaboratory at the University of Chicagoduring World War II.

A founding member of theUrban League of Champaign County,Anderson and his wife Annabellecreated Project Goodstart, a morningmeal program for disadvantaged schoolchildren. He and Annabelle, who diedin 2001, were also instrumental infounding New Beginnings, a faith-basedeffort to assist felons to successfullyreenter society upon their release fromprison.

Anderson was the holder of 11U.S. patents, and APL materialsdominate the global market. In 2004,James L. Schoolenberg, president andchief executive officer of the company,stated “Eighty-five percent of the metalhalide lamps in the world use ourmaterials.”

If you walk down a street at nightanywhere in the world and can seewhere you’re going, thank ScottAnderson.

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Mitchell receives 2006 COE Distinguished Alumni Award

Joan L. Mitchell

Arnold earns scholarship to study abroad

Kyle J. Arnold (BS ’06) was one of four studentsat the University of Illinois at Urbana-

Champaign to be awarded a National SecurityEducation Program (NSEP) Boren UndergraduateScholarship for study abroad during the 2006/07academic year. He is the only Illinois scholarshiprecipient in the sciences; the other three studentsmajored in international studies.

Arnold, who earned dual degrees inengineering physics and mathematics, is spendingthe year at Konan University in Japan. He tookthree Japanese language courses at Illinois, inaddition to his other coursework.

According to David Schug, program directorof the campus’s Scholarships for InternationalStudy Office, Illinois has been among the nationalleaders in numbers of recipients for BorenUndergraduate Scholarships. “This year willmatch the most students we have ever sent abroadunder this grant,” Schug said. “It is a testament tothe strong study-abroad programs and international emphasis at Illinois.”

The merit-based scholarships provide undergraduates who are U.S. citizens theopportunity to study in Asia, Africa, Central and Eastern Europe, Latin America, andthe Middle East. Arnold is one of 141 recipients from a national applicant pool of 720undergraduates. Scholarship recipients are required to seek employment with the federalgovernment in the Department of State, the Department of Homeland Security, theDepartment of Defense, or the national intelligence community, generally within threeyears of graduation. They also receive priority-hiring status from these agencies.

While at Illinois, Arnold did independent research in Paul Kwiat’s quantuminformation group, where he worked on developing low-loss optical switching andstorage for a single-photon source for parametric down conversion. His ultimate careergoal is to earn a PhD in physics and carry out research in quantum information andquantum computing, which are applicable to cryptography.

Michael Dubson, University ofColorado at Boulder

Kyle Arnold visiting the Todai-ji(“Great Eastern”) Temple, Kyoto


Department of PhysicsUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign215 Loomis Laboratory of Physics1110 West Green StreetUrbana, IL 61801

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PHYSICS ILLINOIS NEWSPhysics Illinois News is published twice a year by theUniversity of Illinois Department of Physics for itsstudents, faculty, alumni, and friends.

MISSIONThe mission of the Department of Physics of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is to serve the people of the State of Illinois, the nation,and the world through leadership in physics educationand research, public outreach, and professional service.

EDITORCelia M. Elliott

FEATURES WRITERCyndi Paceley

ART DIRECTION & DESIGNCollege of Engineering Communications Office

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Physics Illinois News215 Loomis Laboratory of Physics, MC-704Department of PhysicsUniversity of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign1110 West Green StreetUrbana, IL 61801-2982 USA

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Backward GlanceFour graduate teaching assistants in the Department of Physics competed in 1978 in the then-newly revived GECollege Bowl. Their team, The Coulomb Gauge, swept all six local matches to become the University of Illinois’representative in the regional meet, which was held at Southern Illinois University in Edwardsville. The team wasundefeated in that tournament as well, earning the right to compete nationally at the College Bowl finals in MiamiBeach, Florida. Team members, shown above, were Greg DeWitt (MS ’78), John Gardner (MS ’78, PhD ’80),Paul Schoessow (MS ’79, PhD ’83), and Marty Brophy (MS ’78, PhD ’85).

2 physics illinois news • 2007 number 1

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